Brother says he’s shocked by refugee’s arrest
Two men face charges for trying to help the Islamic State group fight Syria.
houston» The brother of an Iraqi refugee who had settled in Texas said he is in shock after learning that his sibling — who had come to the U.S. to escape the violence in their homeland — is now facing charges that he tried to help the Islamic State group.
Federal authorities allege 24year-old Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan of Houston was coordinating efforts with another Iraqi refugee living in Sacramento, Calif., Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab, to get weapons training and eventually sneak into Syria to fight alongside the terrorist group.
Both men remain jailed after initial court appearances on Friday. Al Hardan was indicted on three charges, including attempting to provide material support for terrorists, and faces up to 25 years in prison. Al-Jayab faces up to eight years in prison on charges of traveling to Syria to fight and lying to U.S. authorities about his travels.
Saeed Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, Omar Al Hardan’s older brother, said he was surprised by the charges because neither Omar nor anybody in their family had ever expressed any support for the Islamic State.
“Nobody likes ISIS at all. Nobody supports ISIS at all,” Saeed Al Hardan, 37, who also lives in Houston, told The Associated Press on Friday. Saeed Al Hardan, who speaks Arabic, spoke in English during the interview but also had a friend translate for him.
Al Hardan said he believes his brother is innocent and that his sibling denied wrongdoing during a Friday telephone call from the Federal Detention Center in Houston.
Authorities say Omar Al Hardan and Al-Jayab used social media to discuss their support of the terrorist group. Al-Jayab and Al Hardan communicated in April 2013, and Al Hardan expressed interest in fighting in Syria, authorities said.
Omar Al Hardan and his parents came to Houston in 2009, with Saeed Al Hardan and his wife arriving a year later. The family had lived in Baghdad but trace their ancestry to Palestine. The two brothers as well as their parents were born in Iraq.